One click 360 video solved? The company is well known for their products in the car industry mainly in hardware. They made GPS navigation before it was even cool. As this market has been taken over by software Google Maps it’s interesting that they made a 360 degree camera for rugged users. On board camera stiching and waterproof with no case makes this a sound peace of equipment to have around.

Introducing the VIRB® 360

Defining a New Standard for Full-sphere 360 Video and Audio Capture

If it’s worth remembering, it’s worth a VIRB 360. This rugged, waterproof camera is true to its name, recording the full 360 degrees — horizontally and vertically. And you can forget about timely post-production work, because VIRB 360 will auto-stitch¹ your 4K footage in camera. If you’re looking for higher resolution, you can record video in unstitched 5.7K resolution at 30fps.

The 5.7K unstiched will let you drop it into Kolor’s Autopano video and get footage even greater then what the camera will offer out of the box.

Edit Videos and Livestream on the Go

With the free, easy-to-use VIRB Mobile app and VIRB Edit desktop software, you can edit, stabilize, share and add data overlays to videos.

Features to be aware of:

On-device stitching only up to 4K/30fps

Stabilization is applied using VIRB Mobile app or VIRB Edit desktop software and is only available for videos stitched in camera

G-Metrix augmented reality overlays are added using mobile or desktop app before sharing

4K stitched-in-camera default setting

Livestreaming only available on compatible Apple® devices
See Garmin.com/virbapp for compatibility
Voice control available for English (U.S., U.K.), French, Italian, German, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese and Mandarin

This camera seems to hit a lot of points in any 360 video producers. Ease of use? Check. One click stable 360 video ? Check. But…

VR compatible

yes

One thing you won’t get out of the box in this setup is stereo 360 video that currently is the gold standard of 360 videos. 3D is just way cooler then you can imagine but maybe more software developers will figure out how to generate 3D 360 video from monoscopic capture.

Kandao a fairly new name in the industry just announced a new camera. The company is from China where the VR industry is getting wide spread. The price point of this camera makes it a product that can compete with the big guys. To give you perspective this is 1/10’th o the price of a Nokia OZO.

KanDao Obsidian 3D Virtual Reality Camera
Designed for the content creators, Obsidian combines state-of-the-art hardware and software to free the creators from the technical drudgery and focus on the creative creation of the immersive 3D VR video experiences.
http://www.kandaovr.com/

Obsidian 360 camera offers a seamless one click solution to stiching video it captures. The Obsidian actually comes in two variants: the Obsidian R captures 360-degree photos in 8k resolution and creates 8k/30 fps or 4k/60 fps 3D-360 videos. The Obsidian S, meanwhile, is optimized for high frame rate shooting, capable of producing 4k footages up to 120 fps.

According to Kandao’s co-founder and CEO Chen Dan, the Obsidian can stitch footage at one frame per second, more than twice as fast as other software. He says Kandao was able to achieve this by leveraging Facebook Surround 360’s calibration code to prove Kandao’s own algorithm.

The camera is made up of six lenses designed and inspired from true human vision system. The company claims that their solutions frees the content creators from tedious post-capture processes while still preserving the details and dynamic ranges of the scene. Seems cool, right?

The company is trying to get people to test out the new camera and it is offering a special Pioneer Program where creators can apply to get special deal for testing out the camera.

Kandao Technology Ltd. Co. focuses on virtual reality technology research and development, providing patented end-to-end solutions for virtual reality video capturing and live streaming. As the only Chinese company capable of live streaming 3D high resolution panoramic video, we provide a complete and competent suite of products to bring virtual reality experience to a wide range of users.

Devidsupertramp a famous YouTuber known for pushing the limits of creating original high quality content has got his hands dirty with many 360 cameras. He created a short video explaining the differences between the 360 camera’s he uses. Each camera has its own pros and cons. Learn more here:

Update! His newest production was shot on goPro Odyssey. His video uses immersive 360 VR 3D technology and it is best viewed on a VR headset and mobile device with headphone. Be sure to check it out below:

YouTube Creators program released a cool video that people new to 360 film making should check out. It outlines the basics limitations of 360 cameras and talks about how the audience may feel for example if you put the camera on a selfie stick and carry it next to yourself. Turns our if you want to have the camera in motion its a good idea to shoot in car. Check it out!

One of our first 360 videos was shot in a car, take a look. Beware its in Polish 🙂

Rodney Mullen, who three decades ago invented many of the tricks on which modern skateboarding is based, steps inside fashion photographer Steven Sebring’s revolutionary 360 studio for his first major release of footage in 12 years, including several never seen before moves. Watch the exclusive short film Liminal here.

Long time no posts! I have been busy trying to work out how to mount 360 cameras on a consumer drone. As it turns out its possible! I was worried about that the Kodak sp 360 4K dual cameras will be to heavy for a drone like Xiro to get some lift!

Design was done in Autodesk 123D free modeling software. I first looked at some other 3D printed drone dampers and remixed for using the Kodak 360 4K mount. If you find this interesting or would like to 3D print your own drone mount for 360 cameras please let me know in the comments below! 🙂

Popular vlogger Casey Neistat published a 360 video showing off Samsung’s new Gear 360. From what we can see quality is better then Ricoh Theta but stiching is still far from perfect. Enjoy Leo getting a Oscar. In 360. What great cool times we live in, eh?

The project was initiated by Samsung PR that reached out to Neistat to film the event. Do you think this kind of documentary vlog style 360 videos will catch on? Only time will tell.